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$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Twenty-six kilometres!',
	'takedown' => '2017-11-01',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2018/10/18.jpg" alt="Sign at the Eastgate Woodlands" class="framed-centred-image" width="649" height="480"/>
<section id="drudgery">
	<h2>Drudgery</h2>
	<p>
		I sent s letter to my academic advisor:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			Hello <span style="redacted">[REDACTED]</span>,
		</p>
		<p>
			I&apos;m in a bit of a predicament.
			I&apos;m in an associate degree program, but this is my final term.
			I need to continue on into the bachelor degree program next term.
			The course registration page won&apos;t allow me to register for the courses I need for next term, as the they&apos;re not a part of the degree I&apos;m working on this term.
			I can&apos;t transfer to the bachelor degree program until my associate degree is finalised though, as I need the associate degree for job hunting in the mean time.
		</p>
		<p>
			What do I do?
		</p>
		<p>
			Thank you,<br/>
			~ Lexi
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<p>
		Let&apos;s see how they respond.
		Also, let&apos;s see if they actually listen to what the problem is.
		I&apos;ve got a new academic advisor now, so I&apos;m not sure how well they actually pay attention.
		It seems to be hit and miss with the people at this school.
		My best guess though is that I&apos;ll need to basically take a &quot;dummy term&quot; next term; a term of courses that in no way help with my degree.
		I&apos;m also guessing that the academic advisor isn&apos;t going to suggest this.
		They&apos;ll likely either tell me to take the next term off or skip the associate degree altogether.
		I need ot for the short term though, even if it&apos;ll be made irrelevant later by the bachelor degree.
	</p>
	<p>
		My discussion post for the day:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I think my first question would be whether any schools that implemented the program saw a <strong>*decrease*</strong> in scores.
			If the program has no effect on scores, it&apos;d be easy enough to find four schools within the country that happened to implement the program and likewise happened to see an increase in test scores.
			Other schools implementing the program would happen to see a decrease though, should the program not have any real effect on test scores.
			Likewise, there&apos;s a possibility that the program has a negative effect on test scores, but these four schools saw an increase in test scores despite that due to other variables.
		</p>
		<p>
			My next question would be about the increase in test scores in schools that <strong>*didn&apos;t*</strong> implement the program.
			There could be a nation-wide increase in test scores, unrelated to the program.
			Even if all schools implementing the program did see an increase in test scores, there&apos;s a chance all schools saw similar increases even without the program.
			For that matter, schools not implementing the program might have seen a <strong>*bigger*</strong> increase!
		</p>
		<p>
			Because the politician in this scenario only cited four schools as having the test score increase, it&apos;s very likely that they either don&apos;t know what they&apos;re doing or they&apos;re deliberately withholding information, either of which is often seen in politicians.
			If they don&apos;t know what they&apos;re doing, this four-example set might be their entire sample size, in which case there isn&apos;t enough data for a conclusive hypothesis.
			If they&apos;re withholding information, they are likely suppressing the data points that disagree with their goals, is which case their plans need to be ended.
			Dishonesty like that isn&apos;t good for the people the politician represents.
		</p>
		<p>
			Like the discussion post recommends, you can also ask about sample and sampling methods.
			This would be useful for learning the validity of the presented data, though it still mostly boils down to finding either incompetence or dishonesty in the presented data, which we were looking for above.
			You could also ask about the mean, as the discussion post recommends.
			With the mean, you&apos;d have a better idea about all the data, not just the data presented about those four sample data points the political originally tried to pass off as a valid case.
			Mostly though, I&apos;d want to see the data points that contradict the argument, such as increases in test score without the program, decreases in test score with the program, and the comparison of increases/decreases compared between schools with and without the program.
			The best statistic might even be the comparison of the mean increase for schools with the program against the mean increase for schools without the program.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			I&apos;m of non-binary gender.
			I&apos;m not really sure what the social norms for that are.
			In general, most people don&apos;t seem to acknowledge any sort of non-binary gender as even existing, let alone have expectations for people that don&apos;t fit into the typical two-box system.
			Even the book provides no information relevant to people that are neither men nor women.
		</p>
		<p>
			There&apos;s a reason I use the name Alex.
			It&apos;s a gender-neutral name, short for one masculine name, four feminine names, and one androgynous name.
			The simple fact is that I&apos;m a queer.
			It&apos;s a proven fact that men and women have different brain structures.
			It&apos;s also been proven that we queers have brains with structures partway between that of men and women.
			We&apos;re a mix.
		</p>
		<p>
			It&apos;s important to note that the discussion question asks about gender, which is not the same thing as sex.
			Someone&apos;s sex describes what sexual organs lie between their legs.
			However, gender relates to the mind instead.
			And when studying psychology, gender has quite a bit more relevance.
			Psychology is all about the brain.
		</p>
		<h3>Hormones</h3>
		<p>
			The book also discusses the role of hormones as one of the differences between men and women.
			For the most part though, this is a difference between the sexes though, not the genders.
			Males, not men, typically have higher testosterone levels unless hormone therapy is being used.
			Females, not women, typically have higher oestrogen levels when hormone therapy isn&apos;t being used.
			Its clear that the author isn&apos;t writing about gender, even though they&apos;re using the word &quot;gender&quot;.
			They&apos;re writing about sex.
			As the discussion question asks about gender, we have to disregard things such as hormones that are determined not by gender, but by sex.
		</p>
		<h3>Behaviours</h3>
		<p>
			Behaviours are much more related to gender than hormones.
			Society expects different things of people of different genders, but also, there are natural tendencies each gender exhibits.
			Furthermore, people of a given gender are likely to take up behaviours they associate with their gender, not only because society expects it (although it does), but because it makes them feel more in line with their identity.
		</p>
		<p>
			The book tells us that men have a tendency to eat more unhealthy foods and engage in drug use.
			Drugs such as tobacco and alcohol have long been associated with health problems.
			Men also tend to think themselves immutable; they think they can&apos;t change because it&apos;s too late.
			Men also suffer a from a tendency not to maintain their diets and instead engage in more dug use after losing a partner through divorce or death (Ogden, 2017).
		</p>
		<p>
			Women on the other hand engage in less physical activity (Ogden, 2017).
			This could be a result of spending their time instead raising children, as more women raise children than men.
			I&apos;d love to see some statistics comparing child-free men to child-free women, and see if such women truly do engage in less physical activity.
			My guess is that they&apos;re just as active as the men.
		</p>
		<p>
			Men are also likely to take more risks than women, resulting in an early grave (Ogden, 2017).
			In edge cases, it even crosses over into stupidity.
			You don&apos;t often hear about young women engaging in idiotic chicken fights in motor vehicles, do you?
			Whenever there&apos;s a chicken fight, it&apos;s usually if not always the young men.
			For those unfamiliar with the activity, two people will drive cars straight at one another.
			Whoever veers away gets labelled the chicken, meaning that they&apos;re believed to be cowardly.
			But often times, neither party veers away, just to preserve their pride.
			So both parties are severely injured or die.
			Even less idiotic risky behaviours tend to be preferred by men.
			Skydiving, for instance, presents a lot of unnecessary risk, and is favoured by more men than women (Ogden, 2017).
		</p>
		<p>
			Men also tend to engage in sexual activity with more partners than women (Ogden, 2017).
			I can&apos;t help but feel this is part of a a sexist line of thought in our culture.
			Men are labelled as studs if they can get a bunch of girls.
			Women are labelled instead as sluts if they get a bunch of boys.
			This encourages this unhealthy behaviour in men, but discourages it in women.
		</p>
		<h3>Seeking help</h3>
		<p>
			Women have a higher tendency to seek help from medical professionals than men (Ogden, 2017).
			Even when men do seek help, they tend to put it off.
		</p>
		<h2>Beliefs</h2>
		<p>
			Men have a tendency to write off risks (Ogden, 2017).
			They don&apos;t believe they&apos;ll come to harm, for some reason.
			They don&apos;t take caution at times women would, because they don&apos;t seem to have as firm a grip on the concept of their own mortality as women.
			Women also seem to accept more that they have control over their own health than men do.
			As such, women are more likely to engage in healthy behaviours because they realise that these behaviours do have an impact on their health.
		</p>
		<p>
			Health status is in many ways subjective.
			There&apos;s no actual measurable scale of health.
			Men tend to rate themselves as more healthy than women do, so they don&apos;t feel as much of a need to do anything to change or seek help (Ogden, 2017).
			It doesn&apos;t help either that society tends to push the idea that men are supposed to be naturally healthy and not need to actively maintain their health.
			Men are also expected to defend their manhood by engaging in &quot;manly&quot; activities and behaviours, many of which are contradictory to what would be good for their health.
			Women, on the other hand, are expected to care for their health (Ogden, 2017).
		</p>
		<h3>Support</h3>
		<p>
			Men are expected by society to be self-sufficient and not need to lean on others for support.
			Women, on the other hand, are more allowed by social norms to talk about what&apos;s going on and get the advice they need, not to mention just find a willing ear to hear them out (Ogden, 2017).
			Just talking about something can be a great help in solving a problem or even just relieving stress.
			Instead of just talking about it, men are therefore encouraged to engage in less healthy forms of coping.
			Avoidance, for example, increases stress levels as the problem doesn&apos;t actually go away.
			It&apos;s also more accepted by society for men to be hostile than it is for women to be, and as we covered last week, hostility has negative health effects such as cardiovascular disease.
		</p>
		<h3>Myself</h3>
		<p>
			I guess from what the book is suggesting, my health behaviours are closer to that of a woman than a man.
			I&apos;ve never used tobacco or alcohol, not even once.
			I don&apos;t enjoy risky activities.
			The riskiest thing I do is go biking on paved paths, which doesn&apos;t really present a whole lot of risk.
			I only want one partner, though to date, I&apos;m still a virgin.
			I also seek medical help when I need it.
			I&apos;ve actually been trying to find time to get to a doctor recently, though school, work, and personal obligations (recent birthdays) have keep me too busy.
			I&apos;ve got a sharp shard of glass in my foot though from when I dropped a bowel recently and it shattered, and I&apos;ve failed to get it out myself.
			I&apos;m hoping a doctor can get it out easily with a small scalpel incision and a pair of tweezers.
			I also went and got a check-up as soon as my insurance coverage acceptance finalised.
			I try to care for myself, though I&apos;m also very busy and don&apos;t have as much time to do that as I&apos;d like.
			I&apos;m also an open book, and don&apos;t try to hide away my feelings.
		</p>
		<h3>Questions</h3>
		<p>
			Why do you think modern society is so adamant about making men &quot;act like men&quot; and women &quot;act like women&quot;?
			Why can&apos;t people just be happy with everyone acting like themselves instead of having to take on silly roles?
		</p>
		<h2>The other reading assignment</h2>
		<p>
			Like in past units, one of the reading assignments is on a website that blocks my $a[IP] address, so I wasn&apos;t able to incorporate any of what it said into my discussion post.
		</p>
		<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./coursework/PSYC1111/error4.png" alt="Access denied" class="framed-centred-image" width="819" height="774"/>
		<div class="APA_references">
			<h3>References:</h3>
			<p>
				Ogden, J. (2017). The Psychology of Health and Illness: An Open Access Course. Retrieved from <a href="https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/326138/mod_book/chapter/166764/Ogden-The_psychology_of_health_and_illness.pdf"><code>https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/326138/mod_book/chapter/166764/Ogden-The_psychology_of_health_and_illness.pdf</code></a>
			</p>
		</div>
	</blockquote>
</section>
<section id="travel">
	<h2>Travel distance</h2>
	<p>
		It just occurred to me today that I&apos;ve been travelling several kilometres by bike every week to reach these $a[EUGLUG] meetings.
		I knew it was quite a distance, but I&apos;d written off just how far the meetings are.
		I figured they were far, but not all that far.
		All this biking has probably helped with my weight loss more than I&apos;d realised.
		Out of curiosity, I looked up the distance today: about thirteen kilometres.
		And most weeks, it&apos;s not even difficult any more.
		It turns out I&apos;m no slouch these days!
		At least, by modern standards.
		Almost no one bikes that far even on a yearly basis, I&apos;d guess, but I&apos;m doing it every week.
		Actually, come to think of it, that&apos;s only a one-way trip.
		I bike twenty-six kilometres each Thursday!
	</p>
</section>
<section id="include.d">
	<h2><code>include.e</code></h2>
	<p>
		It took quite a while to figure out the problem, but it seems one of my old function names was misspelled.
		I can&apos;t believe I didn&apos;t find that when I was initially using that function!
		It&apos;s part of an old Hack assembler I built for class.
		If I recall, there was a hack assembler we were supposed to use, but I couldn&apos;t get it working.
		Instead, I had to build my own or complete all the assembly by hand.
		Building an assembler was quite a learning experience, while assembling by hand would have been outside the scope of the assignment.
		That said, we did have a few assignments in which we <strong>*were*</strong> required to assemble by hand, and I learned from that as well, but there was only so much I could learn from hand assembly.
		I got so much out more out of building an assembler than most people probably did from the entire section of the course that focussed on Hack.
	</p>
	<p>
		With debugging the Hack assembler out of the way, I moved on to the parent class I use for $a[URI]s of a known scheme.
		I immediately ran into what will be the main issue in my debugging project: features meant to be used by child classes.
		Some of the exceptions thrown by this parent class are only used in cases in which the child class tells the parent class that a specific scheme doesn&apos;t support the presence or absence of certain $a[URI] components.
		Actually, now that I take a closer look, <strong>*all*</strong> exceptions thrown by this class are used for that purpose.
		So any one of these that doesn&apos;t match with a scheme I&apos;ve already built a class for isn&apos;t testable.
		Well, as a last resort, I could test them using anonymous classes.
		I think the version of $a[PHP] I build <code>include.d</code> to work with supports anonymous classes.
		I guess I&apos;m going to check for schemes I can implement to test this parent class with.
		If I can&apos;t find the ones I need, I&apos;ll fill in where I need to with anonymous test classes.
	</p>
	<p>
		I started by trying to instantiate a <code>gopher:</code>-scheme $a[URI] with a userinfo component.
		Instead of the correct exception being thrown, I got errors unrelated to the userinfo component.
		Instead, <code>explode()</code> was being passed a boolean instead of a string.
		I finally tracked that issue down, and there&apos;s a method on my Gopher class that I for some reason never implemented.
		Paths in <code>gopher:</code>-scheme $a[URI]s weren&apos;t getting normalised.
		Once I got that fixed, I noticed no exception was thrown when userinfo components are used.
		It terns out methods weren&apos;t being properly overridden in the child class due to more typos.
		When I got home, I checked the class for handling <code>gopher:</code>-scheme $a[URI]s again on a hunch, and sure enough, that same typo was preventing the method from being found.
		It had been defined after all, just under the wrong name.
		This is a big part of why I should have had test code for these classes written when I originally wrote the classes.
		I&apos;m not even sure how long these crippling typos have gone uncaught.
	</p>
	<p>
		I ran the test code again, only to find that now another test case that was working perfectly was now throwing errors.
		I&apos;m unclear on why this is though.
		Basically, <code>dns_get_record()</code> is throwing an error because it&apos;s failing to find a particular $a[DNS] record.
		That $a[DNS] record is the one for the domain <code>missing-domain.invalid.</code>.
		Obviously, this domain doesn&apos;t have a $a[DNS] record, so normally, I&apos;d say throwing an error would be understandable.
		The thing is though, at the meeting, when I ran the debug code, this error never came up.
		Likewise, when I ran the debug code at last week&apos;s meeting, this error never came up.
		I never touched the code since I got it running correctly last week, so why would it suddenly start acting up now?
		Previously, the domain wouldn&apos;t be found, but $a[PHP] wouldn&apos;t complain, so my code was able to throw an exception in response to the missing domain.
		Now, the error halts the debug script so nothing else after that point gets tested unless I comment that test out.
		Of course, commenting out the test case causes the debug code to complain about the missing test.
		I keep thinking that maybe it&apos;s a problem caused by <code>iptables</code> dropping $a[DNS] requests, but that simply doesn&apos;t make sense when you consider that I&apos;ve had <code>iptables</code> set to do that for <strong>*months*</strong>.
		So why is this problem popping up in my script <strong>*now*</strong>?
	</p>
	<p>
		If this code really doesn&apos;t work over $a[Tor], I thought at first it should maybe be removed, but it&apos;s actually a tool for hidden services to avoid putting $a[DNS] names in their configuration files.
		If there are $a[DNS] names in a hidden service block and $a[Tor] fails to resolve them, $a[Tor] fails to start at all, and some $a[DNS] servers are unreliable.
		Even valid names will fail to resolve at times.
		I guess I&apos;ll try again tomorrow.
	</p>
</section>
END
);
